Helenius and Kownacki had to wait more than a year for their second year, and they will finally meet this coming Saturday in Las Vegas on the undercard of Tyson Fury's (30-0-1, 21 KOs) fight with Deontay Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) for the WBC world heavyweight title.
"I don't consider myself weaker and I didn't consider myself as such before our first fight. I know what I can do, what I can't do, and I'm going to do it again. I'm going to repeat what I did in the first fight last year. Three weeks of sparring with Deontay Wilder will definitely help me do that. I've also been able to get used to the time difference and acclimatize well. Aside from Wilder himself, I've also been paired with other fighters more similar to Kownacki's fighting style and manner," said Helenius.
"The people around me helped me focus on this duel. I'm glad that Helenius is claiming his best form ever because when I beat him, he will have no reason to make excuses. This fight means everything to me, I've trained very hard. I have to prove to myself and everyone else that what happened in the last fight was an ordinary accident and will never happen again. I wasn't attentive then, I didn't listen to my coach and I paid the price for it. Helenius proved to me that if you get too far ahead, you can get hit, so this time I will focus only on him," Kovnatsky said.